By Yodit Admasu
Tigist Bezawork is a resident of Addis Ababa. She has been a house wife with a young daughter when her husband left her. At age 37, she said everything turned upside down for her. She had to move in with her elderly mother, who barely can support herself.
With no income and no prospect of employment she tuned to the nearest government district office to be part of a scheme to form an association. She was grouped with five others when she started the business of collecting recyclable papers.
“Our association is Tigist and Co Share Company. We originally had five members; we collect waste papers from various organizations and provide them to factories that produce tissues. The work is hard and we have to travel long distances and sometimes to neighboring regions to collect papers and talk to paper factories to supply the collected papers.
“Two of our original members left and now it is just the three of us. The district office has provided us with this land and other organizations have given us training on several occasions. These trainings are on keeping financial records and how to properly store and separate colored and non-colored papers for the factories.”
Tigist states that their main problem is space. The office container is two by three meters and can barely hold the collected materials. She said they had to put most of it in the compound which exposes it to rain. “We have to protect it like a baby or the factories will not buy it if it is exposed to one drop of water.”
Tigist indicated that the collection of recyclable papers is very challenging. “We have to pay janitors a small fee for them to properly store the papers we collect. Sometimes there are competitors that make side deals and we had to cut our prices just to break even. We do this because we want to work .We try to take part in bids. We find out about bids when we knock on different offices to collect papers, they say they will put it in a bid so we follow up on that and take part.”
Mekdes Abera is with Yeka Subcity district 5 Recycle Department head, she said the government is giving due attention to associations that are engaged in recycling waste materials. The District has several associations like Tigist’s, however Tigist and her friends are by far the best performers in their Subcity.
“They are hard working group, we provided them with the land and training at the beginning. We follow up their progress and link them with potential clients. They have been awarded for their work at the city level.” Mekdes goes on to say that the government provides various incentives at the beginning.
“At the beginning we used to pay them additional 1.50 ETB for each killo they sell and they are obligated to save 20% of their earnings. Women led businesses in our district are doing an outstanding job, they work hard, they are tax payers and the last budget year they have earned around 6 mill ETB, that is why they have been awarded at the city level.”
Mekdes further says that women taking part in bids should be encouraged. “The government should prioritize and encourage hard working women like Tigist and her friends they should be given some kind of advantage when they take part in bids.”
According to a study published by Africa Freedom of Information Centre entitled Towards Gender Balance: Understanding the Barriers and Solutions to Include Women-Led Businesses in Ethiopia
“The government has to explore ways of implementing affirmative measures and possibilities of the provision of incentives that favor Women Led Businesses with a view to: boosting the capacity of Women Led Businesses to involve in various business sectors, to be effective in public procurement tenders, and with a purpose of benefiting women economically at large.” (26, 2023)
The study further states that women led businesses are subject to various forms of corruption which the government should correct to encourage women in business.
The study has made recommendation on areas that need to be modified in order for businesses like Tigist and her friends could thrive and achieve their plans to but paper shredder and a car to facilitate the collection.
Women Empowerment at its best.
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